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June 4, 2013

ADA Relies On Faulty Studies, Not Good Advice

I wish I could copy all of the
reasoning in this one file, but that would make for a long file. Dr.
William H. Polonsky and Dr. Lawrence Fisher have some excellent
points about self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). The points run
counter to the entrenched position of the ADA “experts” which
rely on what I believe are faulty studies. I refer you to this blog
from April 9, 2012. To read both sides of the point-counterpoint,
you will need to download this file using Adobe Reader or a PDF
compatible reader. If you have one, clicking on the link should download it for you.

Yes, I am writing many blogs on
self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and diabetes self-management education (DSME) because of the lack of support for this from the
American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Association of
Diabetes Educators (AADE). They both are using “feel good” hype,
but doing nothing to turn words into actions. The AADE and ADA both
participated in the development of National Standards, but do not
have the personnel to make it a reality. In other words, they are
ideal intentions, but no actions are taken to make it a reality.

The AADE is wrapped up in their own
importance to the point they can't bare to see lay people even
trained to assist in DSME. Yes, lay people (or better yet lay people
with diabetes) could be trained to be able to give DSME as peer
mentors or peer-to- peer workers with supervision, but this beyond
the desires of AADE. They have to protect their position in the
diabetes hierarchy. They are afraid that like the few studies have
shown, people respond to fellow people with diabetes better than
people that issue mandates and their only diabetes knowledge is what
they have learned in books.

People with diabetes are generally open
to listening to other people with diabetes that can speak to them at
their level and not at the lowest common level that CDEs are prone to
do. Every time I hear this from people that have met with CDEs, I
know that they did not do the assessment they are supposed to do.
They were only interested in making a few points and getting out
rather than do what is required by their own policies and procedures.
This says there is a disconnect between the upper levels of the AADE
and the CDEs working in the field. This disconnect is almost large
enough to say that there are two organizations, the AADE and CDE and
each highly disregards the other.

This makes what Drs. Polonsky and
Fisher even more important as they can see the value of SMBG and what
the education would mean to people with type 2 diabetes. Yet, they
see what the studies are doing that the ADA relies on and can see how
they are set up to give predetermined results by asking the wrong
questions. You don't have to rig the results if you carefully ask
the wrong questions. You know that insurance has something to do
with this and the National Institute of Medicine has to be involved.

Yes, I can see the USDA and their
experts being involved in some of this because they don't want people
to be testing and finding out how bad the nutritional information is
that they are promoting through the ADA. In almost 100 percent of
what we read about nutrition or food plans for people with diabetes,
no mention is ever made of using our blood glucose meters to test
what the different foods do to our blood glucose. This means that
someone has a vested interest in not mentioning this as then there
would be more available education for people with type 2 diabetes and
more reason to have testing done.

Drs. Polonsky and Fisher state the
following and discuss each.

Recommended frequency and timing
of SMBG must be adequate

Patients need to be knowledgeable
about SMBG and have the necessary skills to use SMBG data

Clinicians need to be
knowledgeable about SMBG, actually see the SMBG data that patients
collect, and have the necessary skills to use the SMBG data

SMBG data must be collected and
recorded in a manner that permits blood glucose patterns to be
readily observable and easily intelligible for clinicians and
patients

Further concerns about study
design

Conclusions

In the conclusions, Drs. Polonsky and
Fisher clearly state how easy it is to arrive at the consensus the
ADA arrived at by asking the wrong questions. A number of studies
that Malanda et al. Explicitly excluded from their review have
explored innovative ways of using structured and targeted SMBG
testing for this patient population effectively, and have shown
significantly reduced A1C, depression, and distress, and enhanced
diabetes self-efficacy. The doctors feel that rephrasing the
research question and retargeting studies to evaluate the specifics
of effective use of structured SMBG are warranted.

Drs. Polonsky and Fisher clearly feel
that asking the right questions and doing the studies properly would
yield different results.

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About Me

I am enjoying life, despite diabetes type 2. I am retired and enjoying the time I have for writing and photography. I was diagnosed with type 2 on Oct 2003, on oral meds for 4 months and they were doing nothing to really improve my daily readings. By cutting my carbohydrates I received the most improvement, but still not enough. Then I requested insulin, even though I did not like the thought of needles. That brought about the biggest change and A1c's in the lower 6's and upper 5's. Now I am working at maintaining them under 6.0 and hopefully nearer 5.5.